The Pirate Bay Returns After December Shutdown

The Pirate Bay, a portal for sharing of information via bit torrent technology and a much maligned website for illegally downloading copyrighted content, is back. The controversial site, maintained by a global network of hackers but based in Sweden, was shut down back on December 9th of last year by Swedish law enforcement.

Cyber security experts say The Pirate Bay site (with the usual .se URL designation) is fully functional with the database of available torrents apparently much the same as before the raid.

More on December 9th raid on The Pirate Bay

Last year’s raid appeared to be one of the most serious threats to date to The Pirate Bay, which saw its founders convicted of assisting copyright infringement in Sweden in 2009. The Pirate Bay was also closed down for a while by court order back in 2006 but the site became increasingly popular in the years after that incident.

After the raid last year, several mirror and archive sites were created, including one from fellow torrent site IsoHunt. A countdown appeared appeared last month ticking down to February 1st, hinting at the return of the site. The website was back on line late on Saturday, January 31.

More on new The Pirate Bay site

Apparently the new The Pirate Bay website is very similar to the old one. TorrentFreak noted that the new version does not have a moderation panel for staff, which has resulted in some claims that it isn’t the real TPB. Old TPB staff say they plan to launch their own “official” version soon, but it seems likely most of the existing user base will stay with the familiar URL.

The $64,000 question now is what happens to site traffic after this raid in Sweden. The last TPB shutdown one led to a significant increase in use, though other factors may have been involved. Tech Crunch notes that: “Early evidence suggests TPB’s closure had little effect on piracy rates even in the short-term, so long-term declines at least seem unlikely.”